4th OF JULY

 There are so many stories about the July 4th holiday.. this story does remind me of one time we had dumped all the dud fire crackers and fireworks in general into a jar to set it off and see what it would do and dumb assed me I didn't think I should get a wick, the safe thing to do (light fuse and run)  I took the punk and stuck it down the opening and watched as it lit and ... Well It didn't explode thankfully but it did light and flash.. Had it been packed even remotely it might have blown up in my face, making me uglier than I already am...


When we were younger we went on vacation and a friend took care of the pets and lawn while we were gone and as soon as we got back, not quite that night I don't think.. But the next day he was over to get paid and as it turns out it was fireworks gettin season and he was a fire cracker nut.. He bought enough to where his pockets on his coat were overflowing with packages of fire crackers..  So he was  at his grandmas house which is just at the corner.. His cousins were here and he was showing off lighting the fire cracker and tossing it.. Then he lit one and tossed it and without knowing he has a piece of lit fuse fall in the pocket of a package of fire crackers and he started to dance and try to evac his jacket and he gets it off as it continues to erupt..  At first it wasn't all that funny, more scary than anything.. Then after he was ok we laughed  our asses off.. Thing is he was strange in that he loved lighting them and tossing them one at a time until he grew bored with it and then he lit the whole remainder of the package and he would open another toss a few and then light the remainder.. It was like a big deal until he had the fun he would have and then light them as  a whole and get out from under them.. Such obsessive behavior seemed strange at the time but he would be that way with other things as he got older..

Then there was the firework in the post box outside the post office.. Nobody knows who did it and it might have been a team effort..

Me, I always looked forward to the 4th for the fireworks. Way back when dad would get the smallest box of fireworks until I was in junior high, then he got the next step up size.. There was what I called huge as the biggest but all together they were about the same.. The 4th was like Christmas, you just never felt like there was enough fireworks and when it was all over it seemed like a let down of sorts.. Dad would shoot off the fireworks when he got home from working harvest.. This years harvest is over but usually harvest is getting started around the 4th of July...  You grow up and still the 4th had that meaning to it.. It meant more to others as the guy I was talking about would get super charged every year at this time every year and as late as the last time I saw him.. He was forced to move away, troubles with is obsessive cumpulsive extreme..

Badge Henry